It’s personal.  It’s measurable. It’s instantaneous, and in most cases, it’s lower cost than traditional print marketing practices.  However, the days of email blasts to list upon list of accumulated email addresses may be over, for several reasons.  For one, the competitive landscape of email marketing has grown increasing sophisticated.  User expectations are high to say the least. Users expect targeted, relevant, and perfectly timed email correspondence if you want to capture their attention.   They’ve grown increasingly impatient with newsletters that waste their time. It’s almost as if they expect you to read their mind, know what might peak their interest at any given point in time and then launch a perfectly timed campaign to capture the opportunity.

Even with all the hype about email marketing, there’s something to be said for traditional print media campaigns.  Businesses engaged in print campaigns are forced to think about the audience, message, and graphical look and feel of the print piece simply because it’s a big investment of time and money.  The easy acquisition of email tools and email lists have sparked a mentality of quick and dirty email campaigns in hopes of immediate results.  Has email marketing been overdone to the point of diluting overall user interest?  Our advice?  Borrow what’s always worked well in print media campaigns and blend that with what have become best practices in the email-marketing world. 

Let’s add one more wrinkle.  Spam is a fact of life.  This probably goes without saying, but just in case--repeated, unsolicited email to users is considered spam and is unlawful under the Federal CAN-SPAM Act.  That’s not to say that email-marketing campaigns need to be constrained by the bounds of the law to the point of being ineffective.  In fact, in many ways, compliance with CAN-SPAM Act directly aligns with today’s email marketing best practices.

Plan

• Content matters.  Identify your target user(s) and captivate them through THEIR interests, not yours.  Don’t just guess and start sending out blasts to see what sticks. 
  
• Survey your target audience. Send periodic “user preference” questionnaires or develop lists of preferences on your Web site subscriber page.  Gather enough information so you get a sense for who’s interested in what.
  
• Create an editorial role. Use internal staff with experience in editing or hire an outside vendor to fill this role.  Develop an editorial calendar for the year and establish an internal review process.
  
• Always go for a permission based email marketing strategy. The best, most captivated user is the one who has said they want to receive information from you.
  
• Still need to grow your list?  Consider renting lists through reputable third party vendors.  These vendors will send an email you’ve constructed to a targeted list of users who have given their permission to receive email correspondence in certain topical areas.  You’ve got one chance to gain the user as a full-fledged subscriber.  Offer an incentive; give the user a reason to opt in.
  
• Select a good tool.  Avoid using a homegrown tool.  The risks far outweigh the benefits.  There are so many low cost, feature rich tools for conducting email-marketing campaigns today.  Consider hiring an objective, third party Web marketing consultant to help you make the right choice.  We’ll talk more about tool selection in a future article.

Execute

• Clearly identify whom the email is from in the email header.  Never disguise your “sending” identity or falsify any information in the email header.
  
• Craft a compelling, catchy subject line.  This will most definitely trigger whether or not the email is opened.  Keep it at 5 to 8 words max.
  
• Work from the top down.  The first few opening lines of copy can be just as important as the subject line, particularly for users with Microsoft Outlook Preview Pane turned on.  With growing sensitivity to spam, many companies are using the first few lines of copy to clearly state to the user how his or her email address was acquired and why he or she is receiving the information.
  
• Content is key.  Avoid lengthy copy that keeps your offer from standing out. Stick to simple words, short phrases and paragraphs of 1-3 short sentences.  Convey a sense of urgency.
  
• Personalize it.  Include the subscriber’s first name, last name or both.
  
• Include “calls to action”.     Information is great, but what do you want the user to do as a result?  Identify a strategy and execute it with every email.  Do you want to increase site traffic by having the user click through to the site?  Should they make a purchase? Do you want him or her to contact you?  Be careful not to overwhelm the user with too many choices.
  
• If you say you’ll send it, follow through on the promise.  Studies show there is a small window of opportunity to capture the user’s ongoing attention once they’ve elected to opt-in.  Don’t wait until you have enough subscribers to start sending communication.  Set the users expectations up front regarding the frequency and type of communication you’ll be sending.
  
• Provide a clearly visible opt-out or manage preferences link.  Subscribers should be able to easily manage his or her preferences in one place.  In accordance with CAN-SPAM requirements, you should honor an opt-out request within 10 business days.
  
• Include a valid physical postal address in the email.  For commercial emails this is a requirement under the CAN-SPAM act.  It’s also a good business practice and provides legitimacy to your business.
  
• Label email as an advertisement.  Although this portion of the CAN-SPAM law is vague, commercial emails (commerce) not sent to an opt-in list should be labeled as an advertisement or solicitation.
  
• Engage an outside resource.  Third party email marketing vendors should be focused on increasing deliverability.  Make sure the vendor has active relationships with major ISP’s to ensure “white listing”.
  

Measure

• Monitor click through rates.     Identify areas of interest in content and develop follow up campaigns based on targeted list segments.
  
• “Email Opens” can be misleading.  An “open” may not be the result of the user opening the entire email but, rather, viewing only a small portion of the email through a preview window.
  
• Test campaigns on segments of your list.     Vary the call to action or format the content in more text vs. graphics to measure which variations are more successful.
  
• Pay attention to your opt-out rate.  According to Constant Contact, a web based email marketing service, if you’re losing more than .5% of your subscribers per month, you may be over communicating with your audience or targeting poorly.
  

Refine

• Be willing to make adjustments as you go.  If you’re not getting the click through rates you expect, try varying the content type, length or send interval.
  
• Periodically survey your audience.  Ask your audience what they would like to receive from you through email preference surveys.

Finally, if you’re thinking of implementing an email marketing strategy in the upcoming year, consider hiring a professional Internet marketing firm to help.  A knowledgeable expert teamed up with your internal experts can be a powerful partnership for success.

Learn more about Internet marketing services offered by Aware Web Solutions.  Contact us today.  

If you have any comments or questions about any Aware InSites, feel free to contact us at info@awarewebsolutions.com or call 800-783-8919.